The pace of innovation in this field outpaces anything else in human history. In 100 years, the average car moves only three times faster and run twice as efficiently as the 1908 Model T. A Boeing 777 flies about 20 times faster than the 1903 Wright Flyer. But Jack Kilby's original integrated circuit paved the way for modern microprocessors that pack more than a million such ICs into a square millimeter. Amazing.

The crew over at oobject.com have a collection of images of classic car user interfaces, or as we like to call them: dashboards. It's a great way to see how a very common and well-understood task can be accomplished in so many different ways.

Another institution--and I'm not using that word lightly--has become the latest casualty of the mortgage collapse. My feelings are summed up best by this quote:

“A hundred guys flew this firm into a mountain,” said a broker who works for Merrill in California and asked to remain anonymous because he did not have permission to speak with reporters. “It’s really sad. Now we’re going to be a bank like every one else.”

Where are those $100 million bonuses now? How sad for the employees and investors. One hopes that the management can take some responsibility for this disaster. I'm not holding my breath, however.